Talking To The Moon
by TheSparkler
Summary: When everything seems calm at last, the Moon comes, bearing news for the Guardians - night is coming, and they cannot defeat it on their own...
1. See Me

**Long time no see! (You know how life is, right?). This is my first _Guardians_ adventure, so please let me know what you think! Find me on Twitter at TheOneWhoSparks, and as always, happy reading!**

* * *

There was this…girl.

She was different. Odd, to some, strange to others. Unique to all.

A mystery, to Jack.

She knew him, somehow, or, at least she knew of him. She couldn't see him, Jack had quickly learned, but she _knew_ him. She talked to him sometimes, especially in the winter. She said his name into the cold air, and smiled when she could see her breath.

He couldn't watch her all the time, of course. She went to school, and to work, and he often lived with North, who was the only one who would let him make it snow inside (the yetis didn't like it, but the elves always had a blast). He did have a job nowadays, and he did his best to keep it up. He did, however, prefer this area to most others, and when he was in town, he usually went to find her and make sure that she was okay.

He loved to watch her write, loved how the words seemed to flow out of her pen faster than she could think (he never got close enough to see what she was writing about – that, he felt, she deserved to have to herself). She spent most of her time reading and drawing, both inside and out, and rarely went to the parties that seemed to captivate the attention of her friends. She intrigued him, mystified him. He couldn't help but to wonder – did she really believe in him? Or were her conversations with the sky just another one of her odd quirks?

 _She talks to animals, too, you know. Maybe she just likes talking with things that she knows won't talk back._ Jack quickly shook the thought from his head. She had to have some idea, some hope, that he was really there… right?

The bell rang, almost startling him off the flagpole he was crouched on. The doors of the school opened a minute later, releasing tired teenagers into the mild September afternoon. Jack waited, knowing that she often stopped at a classroom or two before leaving – she was a senior this year (making her about his age, give or take a few centuries), and she always had a project or essay of some sort to talk about with her teachers. He stood up as she walked out, his staff balanced across his shoulders and his arms looped loosely over the ends.

"There's this great party tonight, El! You have to come!"

She smiled and shifted the books she was carrying higher in her arms. "I can't tonight, I have that Calculous test on Monday, remember? Besides, we both know that my mother would never let me go."

Her red-haired friend sighed, then continued chatting away. Jack laughed. _What did she expect? All that girl ever does is read. The odds of her going to a party on a Friday night are about the same as Bunnymund admitting that Christmas is more popular than Easter._

As though Jack had conjured him with his thoughts, Bunny appeared out of a nearby bush, meeting Frost at the base of the flagpole as he slid to the ground.

"It's still fall, you know. I don't need the yearly lecture about freezing Easter _just_ yet."

The giant rabbit snorted and crossed his arms, scanning the area around them. "Yeah, right. As if giving you a lecture would stop you from doing anything. For instance, just because I'm here to tell you to stop leaving ice eggs all over the research station near the Pole doesn't mean you'll listen to a word I say about it. In fact, I bet you're planning the first 'snow day' of the year right now instead of paying attention to what I'm saying."

Jack nodded and pretended to look serious, crossing his arms and mimicking Bunny's pose. He soon started to laugh, dropping his hands and leaning against his staff. "You really shouldn't be here, you know. I might still be invisible to most of the world, but someone could see you." He let out a long, dramatic sigh. "Although, I'm _sure_ that 6-foot-tall talking rabbits with lethal boomerangs and body armor just _appear_ from the nearby shrubbery often. At least, they do when I'm around."

The Aussie scoffed. "This is a high school, mate. I think this might be the one place in the world where I am just as invisible as you used to be."

Ignoring the jab, Jack raised his eyebrows and nodded toward the sidewalk a few yards away. Bunny turned to find a young boy, no more than 7 years old, staring at them with his mouth open. He had walked from the nearby elementary school to meet his older siblings, and was now frozen on the sidewalk – and for once, it wasn't Jack's fault. Half-petrified himself, the wide-eyed Guardian of Hope tapped his foot rapidly against the ground and dropped into the hole that opened beneath him. Frost laughed as the long ears disappeared in front of him and the elementary schooler continued to stare. Jack, with his staff on his right shoulder and his left hand in his sweatshirt pocket, walked past the child on the sidewalk. When he looked back, he saw something incredible. The boy, mouth still agape, was no longer looking toward the flagpole, but was now staring directly at Jack himself. Pleasantly surprised, Frost gave him a small salute before shooting upward, his heart soaring higher than the clouds he was flying into.

 _I'm no longer totally invisible. I am a Guardian to them just as much as Bunny, and Tooth, and Sandman! I'm pretty sure that Clause still has all of us beat, though – mostly because he won't let any of us forget it! Now where did she go…?_

Skimming through the air, Jack quickly caught sight of her light hair on the sidewalk below, braided down her back like it usually was. Her friend was still with her, and they had been joined by a pair of boys, who were both vying for the girls' attention (it appeared that the brunet was winning, but Frost knew that they both preferred the blond).

He walked home with them, jumping from lamppost to lamppost above them. He used to walk beside her, but it had shaken him worse than usual when she had turned once when he wasn't expecting it and she had ended up walking _through_ him. Jack leaped from the post to her roof, landing on the flat overhang outside of her window. Tonight was the full moon, and she could usually be counted on to sit up here to watch it – and tonight was no exception. He stayed there next to her until almost midnight, then watched as the nightly golden sand wove its way through the city.

 _If only she could see this,_ he thought, watching her profile as she looked up at the moon, completely oblivious to the brightness around her. He sighed. _If only she could see me…_

Not long after, she went inside for the night, locking the window behind her. Jack, as he sometimes did, moved up to the power lines to watch the dreams take shape mid-air. Sandman smiled down at him from his cloud of sand, and directed one of the golden streaks toward the white-haired boy on the wire. As it moved, it twisted and twirled, moving in and around itself – a sea otter took shape before him. It circled around him several times, then continued on its way. Jack watched it go, then looked back up at the sky. It took him a moment to realize what he was seeing. Sandy, seeing the look on Jack's face, glanced up and froze, his sand spilling from his fingers and his cloud dropping several feet. Filling the sky above them were incredible shades of blue, purple, and green – Clause was sounding the alarm.

 **To be continued...**


	2. The Moon's Message

Jack dropped down the chute like a dart, landing on his triangle in the Circle of the Guardians and sending frost shooting out in all directions. Sandman flew in moments after, creating a mattress to land on and avoid the slick icicles that spun out across the floor. Bunny and the Fairy had beat them there. Tooth was spazzing out, flittering this way and that around the room and giving rapid-fire instructions to the miniature versions of herself that fluttered around her. Baby Tooth flew straight to Frost, burrowing in his hood and peeking out over his left shoulder to watch what was going on. He tried to smile at her reassuringly, but he was fairly uneasy himself. The last time Clause had gathered them, Pitch has covered the Globe and had done everything he could to get rid of the new Guardian of Fun – very nearly succeeding. Jack jumped as North came in, his presence filling the room even more so than his booming voice (though the volume did help).

"Guardians! Man in Moon has news!"

As he spoke, the moon, full and bright, moved squarely to the middle of the window above them. It was rarely perfectly centered when it was full, only doing so when it had something important to tell. The brightness lit up the circle in front of them, and the crystal podium rose before them for the first time in years. They all stared in wonderment – the last time it had appeared, it had shown Jack Frost as the next Guardian. Tooth hovered just off the ground, reaching out as though to draw the message from the cloud of light in front of her. North, towering above all of them, grinned from ear to ear, confident that the Moon carried good news. Sandman hovered, using a golden cloud to bring himself level with the quickly-forming shape. Bunny discreetly crossed his fingers, still hoping to avoid the groundhog. Jack, who had never seen it act this way before, moved closer, intrigued. A figure appeared in the mist, floating gently above the magical circle. A figure dressed in blue, with a dark hood shadowing its face and hair. A figure that looked an awful lot like…

"Jack?" breathed Tooth, turning to look at him.

Frost, his staff on his right shoulder, twisted his face in confusion as the figure floated before him, spinning slowly. As it turned to face him, he dropped his staff in surprise and jumped backward with a sharp inhale, nearly upsetting Baby Tooth from her resting spot. He stepped forward, ignoring the streaks of ice that shot out when the staff hit the ground, hearing neither Bunny's shout of surprise nor seeing the elves scramble away from the spiraling snow. They were all looking at him now, but all he could see was _her_.

The person in the mist before them was not Jack Frost at all – though he knew that she would be close. She had no staff, and the tip of a white braid could be seen on her left shoulder, peeking out from underneath the cloak's hood. But the fabric that was wrapped around her upper body was unmistakably blue – the same frozen color as the sweatshirt that covered him and protected him from his own ice. He was standing with his toes to the podium now, not able to believe what he was seeing. _This_ was why she thought she knew him, _this_ was why he felt like he was supposed to protect her – she was destined to be like him. A Guardian? A Defender?

 _It can't be, she can't…she's not…_

He backed away slowly, shaking his head, but knowing that the Moon didn't lie.

"Jack? What is it?"

He turned to see Tooth looking at him, now ignoring the Moon's new Chosen and instead reaching out for him.

"I know her, I, I have to, to-"

He turned sharply and ran, ducking to grab his staff and shooting upward, leaving Baby Tooth behind and disappearing into the tube that would take him back out into the frozen Pole and the world beyond. The remaining Guardians watched him go, and Tooth moved to follow before a _CRACK!_ -the sound of breaking ice- stopped her in her tracks. The globe in front of them, covered in shining lights, was being wrapped in fast-moving frost. Whether the frozen water had come from Jack or not was impossible to tell, but the thick layers of ice soon covered the entire map, with the small lights struggling to glimmer through. One in particular (Jack's destination, though they didn't know it yet), shone brighter than the rest. Tooth and Sand both dropped to the ground in surprise, and Bunnymund could do nothing but stare, his mouth hanging open and his dignity all but forgotten. North looked back to the square of sky above them.

"Manny? What do you mean to say? Will something happen to Jack Frost?"

Suddenly, the figure of the girl in front of them flashed brighter, her cloak now speckled with white. They looked to Sandman, who had flown up to hover above her. He used his bright sand to create a replica of the shadow of Jack Frost that the Moon had shown them back when he had been chosen, then pointed out of the differences between the two in blue. He looked at them all, then pointed from his Jack to the tunnel that the real Frost had just disappeared into. His message was clear – Jack knew who the Moon was telling them of, and once he found her, they would need the Guardians' help in whatever came next.

* * *

Jack flew through the city, desperate to go faster, and faster, the clouds blurring his vision and his thoughts whirling faster than the Wind around him.

 _What does this mean? Is she going to die? Has something happened? What if it isn't really her?_

He dropped onto her roof in a crouch and hesitated.

 _What if it is?_

Looking down at her window, he saw what looked like dark-colored sand on her windowsill.

 _Sandman? How did he…_

Moving to the rooftop outside of her window, Jack reached forward to investigate. He had seen this somewhere before…

His head snapped up, his eyes wide and his breathing rapid.

 _Pitch…_


	3. Don't Want To Wake Her

Frost inched toward the open window, his eyes quickly adjusting to the dimness within the room. He locked onto a foreboding form near the bed – more sinister than the darkest night, Pitch Black was true to his name. He whispered soundlessly and his hands moved quietly in front of him, shaping the dark sand all around her. Black, looking up, smiled at the nervous boy on the windowsill.

"Careful, Jack. We don't want to wake her, now do we?"

Jack, spooked by Pitch's calmness, moved forward into the room and scanned her immobile form, relieved to find her asleep. His relief was short-lived, however, as he watched countless horrors unfold in the darkness surrounding her – a small figure of a girl trapped in a snowstorm; towering glaciers looming closer; icy waters closing in above her. The sleeping form was restless, mumbling and shifting around, trying to shake the danger and ruin from her own head as the images continued. A car sliding off a road of black ice. An avalanche down a mountainside, and no help on the way. A boy in a blue sweatshirt, trailing frozen destruction wherever he went.

"Leave her alone, Pitch. She's just human, she's not one of us." Frost held up his hands, his staff against his shoulder in a sign of surrender, his eyes holding fast and refusing to give away his fear. "She can't hurt you."

Black smiled again, his accent darkening his words. "Not yet anyway. Did you think that the Moon talks to your Guardians alone? I saw her on the globe tonight, Jack, saw the ice cover the world. She may be human now, but someday she could change, just as you did."

Jack struggled to suppress the urge to reach forward and slap him, knowing that it wouldn't do either of them any good (Pitch wasn't solid, anyway). "So why bother? If you don't do anything, maybe nothing will happen. There's no reason to turn her against me now." He trailed off and lowered his hands as she turned over again, her face pale. "She can't be afraid of what she can't see."

Pitch tutted, as though to scold a small child. "Didn't you know? Our worst fears are not what is scariest to look at, but what we cannot see coming." His hands slowly dropped to his sides as he smiled slyly down at her, watching the black sand fade away. "She may not see you yet, but when she does…"

He looked up at the young Guardian and raised his hand in a small salute, vanishing into the shadows with echoing laughter.

* * *

Jack paced, waving his arms and mumbling to himself. Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth. His staff, strapped to the back of his sweatshirt for safekeeping, glowed faintly from his agitation and left a thin trail of frost behind him, as though to mark his path on the stone floor.

"How long has he been at it?" Tooth asked Sand, coming quietly into the room.

"Long enough." She started at the growl behind her and turned just in time to see Bunnymund leap past her. He stopped in front of the pacing immortal, glaring down at him for all he was worth. Jack, not paying the slightest bit of attention to where he was going, ran straight into him. Bunny glowered, his daunting 6-and-a-half-foot frame dwarfing everyone around him.

"Look, mate, I get it. You like her, she's in danger, big deal."

Frost looked up, startled at the harsh words. Ever since he had returned to the Pole from his encounter with Pitch and explained what had happened, they had left him alone – and now Bunny had had enough.

"The question is, what are we gonna to do about it?"

"Do about it?" Jack looked like he had just been asked to solve a calculus equation on live TV. "What do you mean, 'what am I going to do about it?' It's Pitch, there's nothing I _can_ do, remember!?"

"I didn't say _you_ , ya bludger!" Bunny reached forward and put a paw on Jack's shoulder, shaking him slightly. Frost, moving limply, glanced sideways at the proffered limb, his eyebrows raised.

"I said, what are _we_ gonna do?"

"He's right, you know." Tooth moved carefully forward and Bunny took a step back to give her room. "You don't have to work alone anymore. You have all of us here to help you, and to help her, too." Baby Tooth, who had been curled up in his sweatshirt pocket, poked her head out and nodded in agreement before disappearing once more.

"Who is she?" North asked, coming in behind them and scanning the globe in front of him (as he usually did, just in case).

"She's…" Jack sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know. I just-" He cut himself off and looked at his feet, pulling his staff free from its strap and leaning up against it for support. "I just feel like I'm supposed to protect her, you know? Not like bring-a-snow-day-when-they-aren't-expecting-it kind of thing, like it was with Jamie and his friends." Frost smiled slightly, remembering the boy from the years past (he was half grown now, and had gone away to college the year before). "It's like…it's like she's going to be one of _us_ someday, or like us, anyway. The problem is, Pitch got to her first, and now even if she _could_ see me, she's… _afraid_ of me."

"Oh, yeah, you're a real terror, all right." Bunny reached forward and punched his arm lightly, earning a half-smile and a head shake from the worried Guardian.

"What if…what if she does change…and she joins him?" Frost looked behind him at North, who was waiting patiently for him to continue. His tattooed arms were crossed loosely and his mouth was twitching, as though Clause was trying to hold back a smile of his own. "Pitch told me once that nothing goes together better than cold and dark – what if she has powers like me, but she sides with him instead? Could we fight them both?" _Could I fight her at all?_

Sandman stepped forward and tilted his head, eyebrows raised. _Would she?_ he seemed to ask.

Jack just shrugged and shook his head. Bunny stepped back in front of him and nudged his arm.

"You still haven't answered me, mate. What are _we_ gonna do about it?"

The youngest Guardian looked up at the team around him. Bunny stood before him, ready to leap into action at a moment's notice. Tooth and Sandman stood beside, her wings raised and his sand at his fingertips. North was at his back, now grinning with pride as he watched their newest member begin to take charge. Frost took a deep breath, pulling his shoulders back and holding his staff out beside him as though it was a hiking stick, ready for a long and arduous journey through a trail unknown.

"We fight – together."


	4. The Moon and Its Eclipse

**Thank you so much for all of your love and support! I couldn't do what I do without you. Now - onward and upward!**

* * *

Baby Tooth yawned. It had been almost two weeks since Jack's encounter with Pitch, and so far, the Nightmare King had yet to return. The Guardians had formed a patrol to keep watch, and it was taking its toll on all of them. Neither North nor Bunny could help, as they'd both been spotted when they had tried. Tooth had to constantly hide behind chimneys, and Sandman was struggling to stay awake. Today it was Frost, and BT had come with him to keep him company. The rest of the Baby Teeth preferred to stay in the Palace, but she could tell that Jack needed her now more than ever. His nervousness was causing a permanent chill in the air, and the teenagers on the sidewalk below them were arguing about the usefulness of winter clothing.

"I'm telling you, Anna, a scarf can keep your whole face warm, but a hat only keeps your head slightly less cold. It's simple physics!" She waved her arms to help assert her point.

The redhead scoffed. "C'mon, El, we both know that you're just jealous, and you _wish_ you had a hat as cool as mine!" She reached up to adjust the purple-and-white hat that covered her head, flipping her twin braids over her shoulders as though for dramatic effect. The blonde shook her head and laughed at her friend's antics, knowing that this was one argument that she had no chance of winning.

"Whatever you say," she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes and burying her nose in her light blue scarf, which muffled her next words. "But when your face gets frostbite, don't come crying to me!"

Her best friend laughed as they reached the split in the sidewalk, where they girls went their sperate ways. Anna waved as she skipped away, calling out behind her as she went.

"Don't want Jack Frost to come nipping at your nose!"

Looking down at the blonde from above, Frost saw what her friend did not – she shuddered, and pulled her books closer to her chest as she walked hurriedly the rest of the way home.

* * *

The Pole was buzzing, getting busier and busier by the day. Sure, they still had several months until Christmas, but that wasn't about to stop North from getting his job done ahead of time. Jack Frost, on the other hand, might delay things a bit.

"Where are you off to? You promised to help me design these ice skates!" His booming voice echoed off the walls.

Frost muttered under his breath and inched backward from the window that he was about to jump out of, sliding his staff into its strap on his back.

"I have to go keep watch tonight." Clause raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms, knowing exactly who Frost was talking about as he continued, waving his hands for emphasis. "It's the lunar eclipse, remember? Sure, we've seen it about a thousand times, but if Pitch is planning on pulling something, this would be the perfect time to do it! I can't just leave her all alone." His eyes were wide and pleading. For the first time since truly becoming a Guardian, he was breaking a promise to Clause – something that was not taken lightly by either of them. North loomed above him, his eyes narrowed. Suddenly, his face broke into its usual grin, all signs of seriousness gone. He clapped Jack on the shoulder and ushered him back into the globe room, pushing him toward his chute.

"Go on then, Christmas can wait for now." North waved toward the miniature version of Fairy that had emerged from Jack's sweatshirt pocket at the sudden change in direction. "Send the small one if anything happens."

With a sharp salute, Frost shot up and out, Baby Tooth clinging to his hood for all she was worth.

* * *

He found her on the roof again, staring up at the swollen orange moon. Tonight was the first total eclipse in years, and cold or not, she wasn't about to miss it. He crouched down beside her, chuckling at the cocoon of blankets that she had burrowed herself in. _It's strange_ , he thought _, I thought she liked the cold. Last winter she kept trying to leave the house without any kind of jacket at all – until her mother caught her, anyway. I guess she's decided that she likes summer better or something. Girls are so weird._

The eclipse was supposed to last for almost an hour, and she was prepared to wait it out. Not only had she covered herself in at least three different blankets, but she had a mug of hot chocolate in her hands, her fingers wrapped around the outside of the steaming thermos. It was October now, and the return of Pitch had Jack on edge, causing a bigger drop in temperature than normal and taking everyone by surprise. Her breath clouded in front of her, but she didn't watch it anymore; she almost seemed to shy away from it, as though the cold itself was dangerous.

 _A car sliding. The waters bearing down. Uncountable frozen disasters, and no help. No hope._

Jack didn't know what she was thinking about, but he wished he did. In that moment, Frost wanted nothing more than to be able to hug her, talk to her, do _something_ to help her. But he didn't want to risk getting any closer to her than he already was – he didn't think he could take being passed through tonight.

The Moon hung above them, beautiful and terrifying at the same time.

 _If you ever want to feel small_ , she thought, _look up at the sky._

As the red above them began to slowly fade to silver, the clouds began to build, each racing the next across the endless space above her. They ducked and dived, twirling and swirling with a freedom she wished that she had.

 _I wonder what it's like to be a cloud. No one to tell you what you can or can't do. No one to stop you. Just…floating. Flying._

She sighed and pulled her knees to her chest, reaching out to put the now-empty mug on the windowsill behind her and wrapped her arms around her legs under the blankets. She propped her chin on her knees, her eyes sliding in and out of focus as she became lost in thought. She used to love the winter. She loved nothing more than the first frost of the season, and eagerly anticipated the chance to finally dig her snow boots out of the back of her closet and pull them on over her favorite pair of fluffy socks. She would spend hours curled up with a blanket and a book next to the window, watching the world slowly turn white around her. But after the last few weeks – now all she wanted was spring again, to skip the cold completely.

The wind blew faster, and the clouds grew darker. She should go inside, she thought. _But not yet._ The moon wasn't gone yet. After several more minutes, her teeth started to chatter, like Winter itself was trying to give her a hug. When the silver of the moon started to dip in and out of the darkness, she sighed and bundled up the blankets in her arms, slipping back into her room and fetching the empty thermos from the windowsill before locking the window tight against the growing storm. She left the cold cocoon lying beside her bed and crawled underneath her comforter, thankful for the flannel sheets that she had put on earlier that day.

Warm she was, but tired she was not. Night had become the worst part of the day. Nightmare after nightmare kept her fighting (and failing) to stay awake, and every one of them ended in frozen darkness. Reaching up to turn on her lamp, she curled into a ball on her side, bedding bunched up around her, hoping with everything that she had for a dreamless sleep.

Sleep it was. Dreamless it was not.

* * *

 _The cold North Wind blew, stinging her hands and face. She squinted into the storm, fighting to see across the frozen lake beneath her feet. A deep-purple cloak whipped around her, offering little protection against the cold and getting in the way when she tried to move. She struggled to gather it in her hands, to pull it around her freezing arms, but it was quickly ripped from her grasp once again._

 _She saw a flash of red and struggled to move toward it, knowing that the Wind would never let her, but trying anyway. She felt a sense of urgency inside of her, as though disaster was coming once more. The red appeared again, this time followed by a cry – a cry that she knew well._

 _Anna!_

 _She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She pushed onward, her feet heavier by the second and her ears ringing with frostbite. It was roaring and silent at the same time, the Ice whistling by and the Snow muting everything around her. Her eyes were almost completely closed now, protesting against the onslaught. But she saw it again – the red, this time followed by a streak of blue._

The cold seeped through her blanket, seeming to settle into her very bones. She rolled over, fighting her own mind and body, and losing to both. Her breathing was heavy, full of darkness and despair and loss.

 _Not Him. Anyone but Him._

 _The figure in blue followed the red, chased it, brought it crashing to the frozen ground. He stood above her friend, the sister that she never had, and she could do nothing but watch as he smiled maliciously, laughing with no remorse as He brought his staff down, lighting up the sky around them with a flash of frost._

 _Only cold. Only darkness. Only fear…_


	5. See Her (Blue and White)

_The air was cold in her lungs, sharp against her nose. She could feel the chill all around her, but it was different now. The snow stung at her fingers…_

 _But she was inside, in a bed under blankets, with no snow to be found._

She turned over again and stretched, reaching up to touch the headboard above her. Her tired eyes shot open, staring at her own hands in the lamplight. She had been right – there was no snow to be found. But her hands were white and blue, a sure sign of growing frostbite. She sat up quickly and pulled her arms toward her, squinting in the semi-darkness, the moon just beginning to give way to the sun outside her window. As she studied the seemingly-harmless colors, she realized something else.

She could see her breath. Inside of her room.

Then she heard a sinister laugh emerge from the far corner of the darkness.

* * *

Jack didn't get it – nothing had happened. He'd come back to the Pole early in the morning, still shaking his head and trying to figure it out. She had sat outside for half the night to watch the blood-orange Moon, then climbed into her room and fallen asleep under a mound of blankets. Sandman had held back his golden creations, giving her a chance to sleep soundly and dreamlessly. Jack had stayed outside of her window the whole night, but there was no Black in sight, nor any dark-colored sand to be found. Of all the nights for something – _anything_ – to happen to her, that had been it. But Frost had seen nothing.

The sun was almost fully risen now, throwing the last of its pink rays onto the frozen tundra around them. The Guardians had gathered on the overhang in the Globe room to decide what would happen next.

Jack, for once not pacing, stood with his right arm wrapped around the top of his staff as though to hold himself up, and his left hand gripping loosely to the wood in the middle. His head rested on his arm, feeling as though it had doubled in size and tripled in weight.

"I say we just leave well enough alone. If nothing's happened yet, it never will." Bunny spun a boomerang in his paw as he talked, clicking it in and out of the holster on his arm.

Tooth looked hesitant, but she agreed with the Aussie – it was hard enough for Clause with Christmas coming up, and her Baby Teeth hated the cold because it slowed them down and reminded them of Pitch. She stepped forward and put a small hand on the shoulder of the dejected boy in the blue sweatshirt.

"Maybe it's for the best, Jack." He sighed as she continued. "There could have been a mistake, or whatever the Moon had predicted simply… didn't happen this time."

"This is true," said North thoughtfully as he came into the room, carrying a plate of frosted sugar cookies. "But does Man in Moon make mistakes?"

"He did with me."

Jack's words stunned the entire group. Even Baby Tooth – the only one of her sisters who loved the cold – poked her head out of his pocket in surprise. Clause narrowed his eyes. He set the plate on a nearby chair and moved to stand in front of the immortal, putting one hand on each shoulder.

"Look at me, Jack Frost." For once, he was quiet, speaking only to the one in front of him.

"Man in Moon? Does not make mistakes. You are a Guardian, just like rest of us. Do not let someone like Pitch make you think otherwise."

Frost looked down briefly and gave the bearded giant a half-smile, earning a clap on the shoulder in return. As Jack opened his mouth to speak, a blast of air flooded the room, wrapping around the globe like a shimmering mist, and all but Frost felt the cold. Baby Tooth shot back into his sweatshirt, curling up in the tiny pouch within the bigger pocket – her very own pocket-within-a-pocket. The elves scattered into the corners, and papers flew through the air. The yetis were all busy working on the sleigh, too far away to help. Jack could feel the adrenaline coursing through the room as the Guardians moved slowly to stand back-to-back, ready to face any threat that may come.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the one and only Jack Frost," a girl's voice echoed, frigid and sharp. The ground beneath their feet was slowly covered in a shining sheet of blue, and Bunny nearly lost his balance on the slick ice. He growled, realizing that they were now at a disadvantage – or most them were, anyway.

Jack Frost, his footing as sure as ever, stepped toward the globe, staff raised and eyes narrowed.

"Who are you? And how do you know my name?"

"It is not who I am that should concern you, but what I can do that you should be afraid of," the voice echoed.

 _I know that voice, how do I know it?! Think, Jack, think! Who is she…_

A feminine figure appeared before them, supported by a column of ice that rose beneath her feet. Bunnymund gasped and Frost could feel Tooth shake beside him, her wings starting to buzz. The girl in blue was familiar to all of them – she was the one depicted by the Moon all those nights ago, dressed in blue with a braid on her shoulder.

"You can call me Snow," she declared, the hood of her cloak hiding her face. She lifted her head to look at them, and Jack's world stopped.

 _Her_

"What did I say?" North whispered from behind him, the only one among them who wasn't in a state of shock. "Man in Moon is always right." Glancing backward, Frost saw Sandman scanning the large room, his eyes narrowed and his golden cloud readied in his hands and billowing beneath his feet.

"My dearest Guardians." Pitch's words rang out through the vast space, his shadows playing tricks on the walls. "I would like to introduce you to my newest discovery."

"What did you do to her?!" Frost, staff still raised, could do nothing to fight against a being that he couldn't see.

" _He_ didn't do this to me," said Snow, using her gloved hands to direct the ice beneath her and bring her closer to the stone overhang. "He only told me who did. That led me here, to _you_." She spoke calmly, as though there wasn't frost in her hands and fire in her eyes.

"Why don't you tell us what happened? Maybe we could help you." Snow seemed to flare up at Tooth's quiet words. "I don't need your help, Hummingbird," she mocked. Fairy's eyes narrowed, her wings blurring as she hovered above the frozen ground. Snow continued. "The boy I'm looking for is standing right next to you."

Just as he realized what she had said, Jack felt himself blown backward by an icy wind, sending him sliding uncontrollably across the smooth floor. Hitting the wall behind him, he braced himself and squinted against the wind. Making sure that Baby Tooth was still okay, he realized that his hands were empty.

"Jack!"

He could hear, but not see, the other Guardians scrambling across the slick ground. A flash of blue and green passed him, soon followed by a streak of gold. The figure in red was further away, and Bunny was out of sight, scattered by the wind like Frost.

Suddenly, points of ice sprang toward Jack, pinning him to the wall by his sweatshirt. The whipping wind settled, and Snow sauntered toward him. As she got closer, Frost saw what no one else had – her normally bright-blue eyes were now rimmed with black. Jack, eyebrows scrunched, stared as she got closer, picking up his fallen staff from the floor as she went. Her footing was as sure as his, as though she was having a nice stroll on the beach instead of a precarious walk on solid ice. Her hood had fallen, and there was no mistaking the girl that Jack had come to know so well.

Pitch materialized behind her, his head tilted as though he was watching his favorite TV show.

"Snow, look at me. This isn't my fault." Jack spoke calmly, and seemed to struggle against the ice. "Pitch is clouding your mind and making you see the worst in everything." She raised her eyebrows as he stopped moving, staff over her shoulders and arms looped around the ends as though it was her own. "I didn't do this to you, and Pitch didn't either."

"Then tell us, Jack Frost," Black whispered, as though egging them on. "Who did?"

Jack ignored him, focusing only on the one who right in front of him. "I don't know, El. I don't know how, or why, but I know that the Moon _chose_ you. Just like he found me more than 300 years ago. Just like he saved all of us."

Glancing at the skylight above her, the girl with the staff looked confused. When she looked back at him, Jack found something new in her eyes.

 _She's afraid._

"We can help you," Frost continued, looking directly at her and discreetly thawing the floor beneath his feet as he spoke. The black was wavering, as though Pitch was losing control. Unknown to the pair facing the wall, the rest of the Guardians had finally regained their footing, and were slowing circling the frozen trio.

Jack's eyes darted to Sandman, who stood directly behind her. With a brief nod, they made a plan, and Frost turned back to the girl fighting the darkness. Giving her a half-smile, Jack effortlessly slid himself free from the ice on the wall and held out his arms as though to catch her.

"You might want to sit down, El. Just in case."

Then everything went black.


	6. The Beginning

**Never fear, our Guardians are back - sorry for the long wait!**

* * *

She could hear quiet voices around her, talking softly as though to let her sleep. _Sleep…when had she gone to bed?_ Suddenly, the events of the previous night came flooding back, and her eyes shot open, electric blue and sharp. She was lying on a couch, facing the back, with absolutely no idea as to how she had gotten there.

 _You might want to sit down, El…just in case…_

Her heartrate shot up, and she fought to keep her breathing quiet. Jack Frost – _the boy in blue_ – had done this to her, she was sure of it. She focused on the light-colored fabric in front of her face and listened to the sounds around her, gathering information and trying to form a plan.

"Do ya really think it's safe to leave her alone like this?" She tried to identify the voice, but she didn't remember Pitch Black telling her anything about an Australian Guardian.

"She'll be okay, she's just scared. With Pitch gone, she should go back to her normal self, right Jack?" Hearing the lilt and soft buzz that accompanied the assurance, Snow deduced that this had to be the Tooth Fairy, her rapidly-fluttering wings accounting for the swift movements causing the noise.

"I just hope…" There was a sigh, and she could picture him dragging his hand through his hair. "I just hope that the Moon knew what he was doing." The moon? Was that a code for something? Surely Frost didn't think that a giant meteor with the gravitational attraction that caused waves on Earth was responsible for whatever was happening – surely even _he_ couldn't be _that_ dimwitted. _He will try to convince you that he had nothing to do with this_ , Black had told her, teaching her how to temporarily control the water around her to form ice. _But you mustn't listen to him; he is a liar and a coward, and you are more powerful than he could ever be. Together, we will get rid of the Guardians, once and for all._

There was a break in the noise behind her, then sounds of agreement. _Sandman_ , she thought, knowing that he was the silent one of the group.

 _When Jack Frost had looked past me and nodded_ , she realized, _he must have been looking at Sandman to knock me out. But why did Pitch run and leave me behind?_

She stretched slightly, looking for soreness and bruising that wasn't there.

' _You might want to sit down'…why did Frost catch me instead of just letting me hit the ground?_

Finally, she couldn't stand holding herself still any longer. Taking in a huge breath, she slid off the couch without a sound and turned to face them, her hands out in front of her and blue with ice. Jack, facing her from almost ten feet away, seemed unsurprised that she was ready for a fight. Instead of bracing for a fight to match, Frost left his hand in his pocket and staff on his shoulder as he watched her, an odd expression on his face.

"What did you do to me?!"

Her words, ringing off the stone around them, caused the rest of the Guardians to jump, Tooth dropping to the ground with her hands out in a calming gesture and Clause turning with his arms crossed, the only one of them truly grinning. His smile caught her off guard, and she realized a beat later that he was returning her stare, one eyebrow raised.

"We did nothing, Ms. Snow. Your transformation is from Man in Moon, not from Guardians."

"Man in moon?" _Since when was Santa Russian? And crazy?_

"We can explain everything once you calm down," said Frost, moving slowly toward her. Snow's eyes narrowed, and the ground beneath her feet began to ice over as her breathing accelerated and her panic rose. Jack, smiling slightly, touched the top of his staff to the stones near her feet, and she couldn't help but to watch as the frozen water disappeared at his touch. He slid the staff into a loop that appeared on the back of his sweatshirt and shrugged, both hands now in his pocket. "Whatever Pitch Black told you, we're not your enemies."

"You're wrong!" Desperate to sound in control, Snow spoke louder than she meant to, the sound echoing slightly off of the stone room around her. She braced her feet and her hands began to glow, her nervous breath clouding in front of her. "I know who you are, Jack Frost." Now it was she who was advancing, and he that was backing slowly, putting them both closer to the rest of the Guardians. "You are a liar, and a child, and you don't care about anything or anyone but yourself." She left a trail of ice behind her with each step, beautiful and dangerous all at once. "Pitch told me what happened that Spring, when you betrayed your so-called 'friends' to get answers on your own past. You didn't change then and you haven't changed now, therefore I have absolutely no reason to trust you and every reason in the world to freeze you to the floor and leave you there."

He had stopped moving now, instead letting her close the gap between them with each step, his eyebrows furrowed.

" _They never should have trusted you_." She saw him wince slightly, grinning at the phrase she knew would hurt him the most. In that moment of silence, there was a snort from behind Frost.

"Ya got that right, mate." Startled, she looked up to find a 6-foot-tall rabbit looking back at her. _So the Rabbit was the Oceanian, then._

Jack, looking mildly offended, called out behind him without taking his eyes off of her. "I really thought we got passed that, Bunny. Frankly, that kind of hurt." He put his hand dramatically over his heart, and Bunnymund rolled his eyes theatrically. Snow looked back and forth between the two as though following a (very confusing) game of tennis.

"Look," said the Aussie. "All I'm sayn' is, that I have never met a more trouble-makin', irresponsible, deadline-skippin', rule-breakingin' kid than that one," he started, gesturing at Frost. Sandman hovered silently, Tooth looked both bewildered and unsurprised at the same time (this confused Snow almost as much as Frost himself), and North looked as though his favorite TV program had just come on.

"Thank, Bunny, that really helps here!" Snow could practically _feel_ the sarcasm from Jack's words as he continued looking at her, still mildly prepared for an attack but now with an amused expression on his face, hands still in his pocket and staff on his back.

"I'm not done yet!" Bunny sighed and crossed his arms, as though preparing for a root canal or something equally as painful. "He may be careless sometimes," (Jack rolled his eyes and gave her a _'can you believe him?'_ look), "but he's no bushranger. He's always got our back and (usually) does what he's 'spposed to, abet on his own terms. He's a true blue; he fixes things when they go wrong and owns up to his (many) mistakes. He won' to turn his back on ya or any of us, so it's in your best interest to let him help you."

The silence left from Bunny's speech was almost visible in the chilled air.

"You know, that might just be the nicest thing you've ever said about me." Jack grinned, turning to look at his teammate and trying not to laugh.

"Yeah, well," muttered the Guardian of Hope, rolling his eyes and turning his focus to the boomerang on his arm. "Don't get used to it."

Frost looked back at her, his eyebrows raised. "So, are you ready?"

Sometime during Bunny's heartfelt speech, she had lowered her hands, her arms now handing limply at her sides as she stared at them all, lost at what to do next.

"Ready for what?"

Jack gave a small smile, as though he was quoting a joke of his own from long ago.

"The beginning of the end."


	7. Note

_Hey guys! Announcement time: this story, one of my longest so far, is going under a re-write. As I was writing the final chapters of this piece, I realized that there are several things the need to be added to the beginning, and that the story wasn't going where it should be. The original ending, which has now been scrapped, was pretty tragic, and needed to be changed. The story will stay under the same name and description, so follows, favorites, and comments will be saved! Thank you all so much for your support, and I will let you know when chapters will begin to be replaced. See you soon!_

 _-TheSparkler_


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